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Monday LeaderTip: Reaching Your True North

We all have the capacity to make the time we spend doing our work—or living, for that matter—more meaningful. Yet we limit ourselves by not really thinking about it, submerged as we are in the familiar routines of our daily lives. When we do think about it, we scapegoat our constraints or limitations for not changing the status quo. Consider the difference you make in your work or life today, versus the one you could make if you were doing what you care more about, most days. Closing the gap between the two doesn’t need to be sudden and transformational. Simply ask yourself what you care about, set that as “north,” then make small, frequent northward shifts in how you spend your time. In doing so you will be using the gift of time more and more wisely.

Self-coaching:

Assess how you are spending your time and energy most days, and compare it to what you care more (or most) about. What is the gap between the two?

Starting now, what small shifts can you make in the way you are spending your time to align more directly with what you care about?

Ask yourself these questions more frequently in the future as a good check / balance for falling back into your routines.

Based on client experiences / lessons learned, our weekly LeaderTips have been offering self-coaching themes and topics of interest to leaders since 2004. They are often published in BusinessWeek Online, sent weekly to our clients, and hundreds of other corporate leaders worldwide. I invite you to forward them to others, who are also welcome to subscribe using the link below. Note that over 100 of these tips appear in my book, Beyond Effective: Practices in Self-aware Leadership. Click here to subscribe to LeaderTips via email.

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Monday LeaderTip: Reaching Your True North

We all have the capacity to make the time we spend doing our work—or living, for that matter—more meaningful. Yet we limit ourselves by not really thinking about it, submerged as we are in the familiar routines of our daily lives. When we do think about it, we scapegoat our constraints or limitations for not changing the status quo. Consider the difference you make in your work or life today, versus the one you could make if you were doing what you care more about, most days. Closing the gap between the two doesn’t need to be sudden and transformational. Simply ask yourself what you care about, set that as “north,” then make small, frequent northward shifts in how you spend your time. In doing so you will be using the gift of time more and more wisely.

Self-coaching:

Assess how you are spending your time and energy most days, and compare it to what you care more (or most) about. What is the gap between the two?

Starting now, what small shifts can you make in the way you are spending your time to align more directly with what you care about?

Ask yourself these questions more frequently in the future as a good check / balance for falling back into your routines.

Based on client experiences / lessons learned, our weekly LeaderTips have been offering self-coaching themes and topics of interest to leaders since 2004. They are often published in BusinessWeek Online, sent weekly to our clients, and hundreds of other corporate leaders worldwide. I invite you to forward them to others, who are also welcome to subscribe using the link below. Note that over 100 of these tips appear in my book, Beyond Effective: Practices in Self-aware Leadership. Click here to subscribe to LeaderTips via email.